Audio Therapy Significantly Attenuates Aberrant Mood in Residential Patient Addiction Treatment

Methodology

Pre/post evaluation of Stress & Deep Relaxation Audio Therapy in 76 drug-dependent patients undergoing residential treatment, measuring 10 withdrawal symptoms. Analysis conducted one hour after audio therapy session, compared against pre-treatment five-point scores.

Key Findings

• Significant improvements (p <.00002) in all ten withdrawal symptoms assessed

• Reduced cravings, stress, depression, mood swings, and anxiety

• Reduced resentment, anger, fear, body aches, and headaches

• Effects measured one hour after audio therapy session

• Evidence of dopamine activation in mesolimbic reward pathways

Clinical Results

Study demonstrates that audio therapy is an excellent adjunct to addiction treatment, providing significant pre-to-post session improvements across all measured withdrawal symptoms. Results support the role of this modality in recovery of patients with co-occurring mental illness and addiction.

Full Study

Using fMRI, researchers have clearly shown that listening to music strongly modulates activity in a network of mesolimbic structures involved in reward processing including the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA), as well as the hypothalamus and insula, which are thought to be involved in regulating autonomic and physiological responses to rewarding and emotional stimuli.

Researchers hypothesized that patients exposed to Stress & Deep Relaxation Audio Therapy would show significant improvements in ten withdrawal symptoms, supporting a role for this modality in recovery of patients with co-occurring mental illness and addiction.

76 drug-dependent patients undergoing residential treatment received audio therapy sessions. Significant (at least p <.00002) improvements from pre-treatment to post-treatment were found for all ten withdrawal symptoms assessed, including: cravings, stress, depression, mood swings, anxiety, resentment, anger, fear, body aches, and headaches. This analysis was obtained one hour after the audio therapy session.

Audio therapy, and specifically music, has been shown in the literature to potentiate the effects of dopamine. Listening to music elicits a response in centers of the brain associated with the experience of pleasure and the mitigation of stress. This form of therapy is an excellent adjunct to treatment and a novel motivational tool in a severely impaired inpatient sample of patients with co-occurring mental illness and addiction.

Research disclosure. The studies referenced on this page were conducted under Theracoustic™, a trading name of the same company and team behind WellAudio, using the same underlying audio therapy technology and methodology. WellAudio is a new consumer product built on this foundation. These studies were carried out prior to the launch of WellAudio and were not performed using this application specifically. Results reflect outcomes from clinical and institutional settings and may not be representative of individual consumer use.